Christmas In New Haven
by Violaead
Summary: My present to Kelly (snorlaxlovesme.) for Chaos Walking Secret Santa 2012. Tiola, fluff and a bit of feels. A one-shot. :D


Today is the 25th of December. That's what the new settlers call it, anyway. They told us about the tradishun that they call Crissmas. It's gunna be a big celebrashun. It's gunna be fun, and everyone could do with some fun right now, what with all the work there is to do.

I'm still in bed, trying to stay asleep, but the tents are real bad at keeping the light out. I roll over and notice Viola isn't in her bed, and I don't even have time to wonder what she's doing when I hear something moving fast and suddenly, out of nowhere there's a huge snowball flying right towards me. I let out a yelp of surprise and-

It hits me right in the face, and it's cold. So effing cold.

Viola's there in the doorway giggling like she can't stop. I ignore her laughing and wipe the melting snow off my face. Then, she pulls out another one from behind her back.

'Oh, no you don't!' I shout as she pulls her arm back to throw it at me.

I leap up and run towards her, and she throws it at my chest this time. I jump outta the way and it misses me completely. I reach the door and she's already ran off to get more snow, so I chase after her. The snow is thick outside, it's been snowing all week. I grab as much snow as I can hold and roll it into a ball. I hear her hiding behind a tree. I creep up to the tree, surprising her, yelling 'Gotcha!' as I throw the giant snowball at her. I enjoy my revenge for a moment before she's back up and chasing after me with a whole stack of them.

We're both laughin' so loud and runnin' through the snow that we don't even realise Ben and Bradley are there too until a huge melting piece of snow hits me right in the face and knocks me to the ground, makin' me stop mid-run. Viola ain't stoppin' and she runs right into me and now we're all just a big mess of melting snow lyin' on the ground. We're laughin' like idiots, I feel warm inside even tho it's so cold (shut up-)

I think she's gunna kiss me back, but Ben throws another snowball and it hits Viola on the cheek-

'That's it, you're asking for war!' she shouts. 'Todd and me against you and Bradley, then!' And we fight and play and shout and laugh for ages, after a while Lee joins us. Of course, with Viola bein' the only one with no Noise, we have the advantage. We play until Ben and Bradley are on their knees beggin' us for mercy. We go get breakfast at last.

Today, everyone is eatin' together in the town square. Since the new settlers landed we've all been workin' on rebuildin' the town. It's startin' to look like we could live in it again, but it still needs a lot more work done. We've been livin' in tents since the end of the war, and I really miss havin' a comfortable bed.

I can smell the breakfast before I get to the square. It smells wonderful, toast, bacon, eggs, there's even those tinned "baked beans" that the settlers brought back from Earth. Viola and I walk hand in hand to the longest table, where Bradley is already sitting and eating. I wave at Wilf and Hildy, and I let go of Viola's hand so I can go get us food, but I see the look in Bradley's eye when he sees us holdin' hands. All of a sudden his Noise is full of Simone and everything he still feels for her. And Viola can hear him too, of course, and I can tell how sad that her friend didn't live to see Crissmas.

I get back with our breakfasts, and we eat it all til the very last bit. It's not every mornin' we get meals like this. But since the settlers are here, we've got a lot more food, and everything is getting better bit by bit. Even though we did have a hard time explaining what they landed into.

After the meal we head off to the spot down the southern road where there's a giant Christmas tree completely covered with strings of lights and shiny stuff. Everyone is gathered around the tree in little groups and chatting excitedly and givin' each other presents. I'm starting to like this tradishun a lot. We join Bradley and some other friends of Viola from the Convoy. Viola presented them to me, and they're quite a friendly bunch. I wave for Lee to join us, but he's busy givin' presents.

'Todd and Viola...' I hear in their Noise. Some of them shout 'Hi' above the loudness. Me and Viola exchange presents.

I watch her unrap hers. I'm careful to keep the present out of my mind so that I don't ruin the surprise. Her faces lights up as soon as she's seen what it is and she lets out a little squeal of approval.

'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone! Todd, how did you know?'

'You ain't already got it?'

'No, but my parents used to read it to me when I was a child...' Suddenly she looks like she's about to cry. Damn it, I shoulda gotten something else, I've made her sad-

She leans closer to me and kisses me softly on the cheek. 'Thank you, Todd' she whispers. The sadness is all gone from her face, replaced by amusement. 'This is the best present you could have got me. Your turn.'

I unwrap my present and stare at it. Fer the love of New World, I have no idea what this is. A tiny rectangular box that fits into the palm of my hand. I don't want Viola to think I'm disappointed, but I'm no good at hiding my confushun.

'It's called an ipod. It plays music.' she takes it from my hand and presses a putton that turns it on. 'These were invented ages ago, way before I was born. Look, these are earphones. You plug them in here... and then you put them in your ears... and you can listen to any song you want.' She puts one little white plug in my ear and one in hers and-

There's music coming out of it, and it's not just any music, it's Early One Morning-

I'm speechless. It's as if Ben was singing it right into my ear, the only difference is that it's not Ben's voice.

It's really the best present I ever got. I give Viola a big sideways hug because we're sitting down, and I kiss her on the cheek. She turns her head so she's facing me, and she kisses me right on the lips. I swear I can feel her smiling while we're kissing.

I love you, Viola, is all I can think.

Ben gives me a little package, and I unrap it. A book that's just a big bigger than the one I got for Viola.

'I think it's time you learnt to read properly, and I'll teach you, alright?' he explains with a big smile.

'Thanks.' I think about the time when the Mayor tried to teach me to read through his Noise, which brings other memories back, like when he tortured Viola, and when he almost killed me in the spaceship. Stuff I'd rather not ever remember, even though it made me who I am now.

I give my present to Ben; a little collection of comics I know he used to read back when we were in Prentisstown. He thanks me and I can tell he loves my present, but in his Noise there's a lot of sadness, so I hug him to try and cheer him up because he's thinking about Cillian and it's been so long since we've seen Cillian and I miss him so so so much I want to cry sometimes but I know that's nothing next to how much Ben misses him, because he was his One In Particular, like the Land says, and I can't even bare to think of losing Viola, so how does Ben survive without Cillian?

In the evening, everybody gathers round the same tables in the town square to have anuther big meal. This time it's turkey, roast potatos, sprouts, little sausages wrapped in bacon, all sorts of delishus food. And then, they bring in the Christmas pudding. Viola doesn't like it so I eat her piece as well as mine, and then I take another helpin'. It makes me kind o' sad that we only get this once a year. Viola is listenin' to my Noise while I eat, I can tell even tho she's pretendin' not to be.

After everyone's done and there's not a crum of pudding left, we get Crissmas crackers. Ben and I share one, which I win, and Ben pretends he lost on purpose. I share my second one with Viola, and she wins. Inside there's a purple paper crown ('Damn, this doesn't go with my hair!') and a litte card with a real bad joke on it ('What do you call a blind reindeer? No eye deer. Hahaha!' 'That is the worst joke ever.' 'Oh.'). She puts the oversized crown on and it slips right down off her head so it's hiding her eyes. We both laugh as I help her put it on in a way that won't let it fall again.

'Your Majesty,' I joke, with a bow.

'Todd, put yer crown on too!' So I take the one I won from Ben. It's bright green, and Viola makes a comment about it matching my eyes. I feel my face goin' red, like it still does most of the time when she talks to me, or notices things about me like my eye colour but I still try to not act all cheesy and soft around her, but when she looks at me, straight into my eyes-

I get that feeling that's like nothin' else... like we're the only ones in the world, like we're the two moons of New World, gravitating around each other forever and that's just the way it is, cuz it won't ever change.

For hours and hours everyone stays up to make the most out of the party. In the end, me and Viola are the only ones still up.

We're lyin' in the snow side by side holding hands and watchin' the black and starry sky, watchin' the moons spinning through the darkness after each other and the stars.

I turn my head towards her and fill my Noise with Viola, and I try to let her know how much I love her, to make her feel it somehow, and it's like her face brightens up with so much happiness and she leans closer towards me and kisses me softly, and I kiss her back. And we lie there for hours in the snow just talking and kissing and gazing at the sky while my ipod plays music and everything is absolutely perfect for a while.

We lie there for hours awake. At some point she moves her head onto my chest and curls up against my body. I try to move a bit and only realise then that we've been lyin' on snow for ages, and that we're both freezing cold. I also realise we wandered off into the dark and we're in a random field and the town could be anywhere and that it's pitch black already, no chance of findin' our way back now-

I feel Viola put her cold hand on my cheek. 'Todd. We'll find our way back in the morning.'

'Fine. But I don't want you to get cold-'

'Don't worry, this is perfect. Really. I love you, Todd, you know that?'

And we curl up together in the cold, cold night, my hands wrapped around hers and hugging her like i'm her blanket until we fall asleep in the moonslight.


End file.
